Colorectal cancer

Colorrectal cancer Cancer is one of Europe´s major causes of mortality and a clear
target of European research in life sciences. There are 3 million new cancer cases per
year in Europe, with 2 million new cases in the EU25 alone. This represents 340 new
cases / 100.000 people per year. 3.000 people die of cancer every day in the EU. One
in three men and one in four women will be directly affected by cancer in the first
75 years of life. Colorectal Cancer is the second cause of cancer death in occidental
world, 207.400 death in Europe in 2006 affecting men and women equally One of the major
areas of progress with cancer is the benefit of long term therapies for reducing cancer
growth rates. Cancers are not ‘cured’ but ‘managed’. With this approach is the need to
monitor people so that the failure of the current maintenance therapy is rapidly noted
and different therapy can be initiated. This requires regular testing for cancer patients.
People wish to avoid hospital yet want the results given expert interpretation and
communicated rapidly back. They want tests that do not miss problems yet avoid
unnecessary invasive tests.

The project aims to develop such an integrated CRC cancer monitoring diagnostic to
be carried out at doctor office. It is important to remark that we will use a protein
marker known as CEA (CardioEmbionic Antigen) during the validation. CEA is a CRC marker
clinically validated and recommended for clinical praxis by ESMO (European Society of
Medical Oncology) and ASCO (American Society of Clinical Oncology). Concretely, this
marker is recommended for postoperative CRC patients’ diagnosis. Postoperative serum
CEA testing has to be performed every 3 months in patients with stage II or III of
the disease for at least 3 years. An elevated CEA warrants further evaluation for
metastatic disease. Also, CEA is recommended as testing marker for monitoring
metastatic rectal cancer during active treatment. CEA has to be measured at the
start of treatment and every 1 to 3 months during active treatment. Persistently
rising values above baseline should prompt restaging, suggesting progressive disease.
Rising CEA should prompt re-evaluation and consideration of an alternative treatment
strategy.